And allan mason



(No Mode-1.)

J. WILSON & A. MASON. APPARATUS' FOR BURNING. PETROLEUM. No. 408.643.

Patented Aug. 6

Hwy

w i L p VVE/vrom By M14/mw WITIVESSES:

v UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN WILSON, OF NEW YORK, AND ALLAN MASON, OF BROOKLYN, ASSIGN. ORS TO HERBERT H. SANDERSON, TRUSTEE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR BURNING PETROLEUM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 408,643, dated August 6, 1889.

Application filed March 8, 1888. Serial No. 266,564. (No model.)

vin Apparatus for Burning Petroleum; and we do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to whichit appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and iigures of reference marked thereon,which form a part of this specification.

The object of our invention is to so present the oil to the heating apparatus that perfect combustion is obtained, and to obtain more heat from a given quantity of the material than by the usual means of supplying heat to atomize the petroleum, so that continuous uninterrupted combustion is obtained; also to obtain a safe, continual, and economical heat for mechanical and other purposes.

We introduce petroleum or other oil or fatty substance, steam, and air in proper proportion and thoroughly atomize the oil and mix it with steam by impinging steam or air upon it, or oil upon steam or air on its way to the iiame. The air makes the combustion perfect, and may, when used without steam, be injected to produce the draft and spray the oil. The steam, when used, supplies the drawing or forcing power, and, in addition, the steam decomposes in the iiame and gives an additional element of heat in the evolving of hydrogen and oxygen. We can assist or stimulate this decomposition and the vaporizing of the oil bythe use of superheated steam and hot air.

The apparatus comprises the means, hereinafter described and claimed, of effecting a lateral diffusion of the injected and atomized or vaporized oil and its due measure of forcing and atomizing steam and air for support- .ing combustion coextensive with the breadth of the combustion-chamber, or thereabout, containing a bed of refractory, or refractory and absorbent, substance a suitable distance beneath the inlet .of the injected film of combustibles for the combustion of the drippings of oil from the inlet, or the same and oil othery wise supplied lto it in combination with the direct combustion from the said inlet either by the air of the lower portion of the injected iilm or with other air introduced separately to the porous bed, whereby a double process results, in which one iire diffuses laterally and along the combustion-chamber and the other upward from the lower bed, and each helps the other by crossing and interinixing of the 6o combustible matters more intimately and effectivelythan as in the common process, and so that the uncertainty of accidental extinctiony of the iiame of either source, and especially of the upper inlet, to which such burners are more or less liable by excessive or inadequate supply of either of the elements and other causes, is avoided and continuous comb ustion secured, the temporary interruption of either being instantly overcome by 7o ignition again from the other. The saidsapparatus, which We claim in this application for a patent, is represented in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l represents a sectional elevation of a boiler-furnace of ordinary construction for burning coal with our improved apparatus applied so that oilfuel may be readily substituted for coal, and vice Versa, without any change of the furnace. Fig. 2 is a hori- 8o zontal section of the same. Fig. 8 is adetail in transverse section of the furnace, and Fig. 4 is a section of the injector for introducing and spraying the oil and producing the draft.

To produce the broad flame in the upper portion of the furnace-chamber a, we employ the broad flat steam-injector nozzle b, about as wide as will enter the ordinary fire-door c, but sufficiently contracted vertically to allow an air-space d above and below for the inflow 9o of air, and having a series of small steam-issues e and slits f, if desired, at the end, with slight grooves or troughs g in the upper sur-` face, in which the oil from suitable supply' pipes h, discharging into said grooves, may be 9 5 conducted oif the end of the nozzle into the steam-jets, which nozzlewe insert in the fire- -door about as shown, with any suitable eX- terior support, and such pipe-connection with the boiler as is necessary for supplying the roo steam, and with the funnel z' for facilitating the introduction of the air by the suction of the steam-jet, and guiding and directing the same to the jet; or we may omit the steam and use air instead, as before stated. XVith this form of injector, having issues and oil-guides properly divergent, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 4, it will be readily seen that a film of combustible elements will be supplied coextensive with the length and breadth of the chamber, t-he oil being very thoroughly atomized for efficient combustion, and being' especially disposed with relation to the upper portion of the steam and air jets for effective combustion in the upper part of the f u rnace-ch amber, with which we also provide for like combustion in the lower part of said chamber and for more thorough intel-mixture of the combustible elements by the use of abed of refractory, or refractory and absorbent, material j below-as asbestus, porous stone, or the likefor receiving and holding the drippings from the injector above for combustion, either alone or with other oil, and with the air of the lower portion of the injected draft, together with or without other air, or air and steam, admitted below said porous bed, whereby we have an upwardly-burning fire from the whole surface commingling transversely with the upper fire and thus insuring the more perfect admixture of the elements than with one fire alone, besides having in the crossfires which support each other an effectual preventative of the sudden interruption of the fire, which is common in the burning of oil in one fire only, from various well-known causes, as the momentary interruption or material variation of the oil-supply by clogging or other causes.

For an efficient means of supplying oil to the refractory bed, in addition to the drippings from above, we employ a series of metallic troughs k, that can be readily introduced through the fire-door and located in about the position of the fire-grate in the ordinary furnace, on which the drippings will be well distributed, and to which oil may be supplied, through the feeder Z and abranch m, to each trough with pipe-connections n, to prevent overflow and to conduct any excess into a receptacle p, and with air-tubes q for the supply of airfrom the space below, and, if desired, the troughs may be fitted with slight air-spaces s between them for better distribution of the air.

XVe have a refractory and absorbent substance beneath the inlet and flame, and as oil will burn readily when lighted in the presence of air the oil that drips from the inletpipe or other means of introducing the oil to the flame-chamber is immediately lighted and burns until all is consumed, and this will in turn light the highly atomized, vaporized, or gasified oil, should it be put out at any time by any accident 01 by having in combination too much steam or air, or both. Thus the Whole system cannot fail to work steadily and surely, and is doubly automatic in that way, the drippings are lighted bythe atomized oil,

vapor, or gas flame, which keeps lthe drippin gs constantly ignited, and in turn the fire from the drippings keeps the atomized oil, vapor, or gas constantly ignited.

The atomizing, vaporizing, and, whenever required, gasifying of the oil are so ac complished by our apparatus that combustion is so perfect that we have no smoke or .lampblack; there is no possibility of the fires becoming extinguished or being suddenly reduced or increased, except as desired by the operator; the flame is broad, covering the entire heating-surface, and has no tongue or jet that would cut, channel, or burn the metal.

The boiler will last as long as with coal or wood fires, and longer, because the heat is more uniform by this process than when a coal or wood fire is used. The flame being broad, covering the entire heating-surface, no brick-work or other protection is necessary to protect the surface being heated from any jet or tongue that by being concentrated on one point or part of the metal would burn through it or shorten its life, and which is also an element of danger, as by the boiler being burned through at the point of contact there is great danger of explosion.

In the case of small tubes we can put the living flame through each tube, thus insuring even heating and perfect combustion.

XVe are aware that oil has been injected into a coal-burning furnace over a fire bed of coal, and we do not claim such process, ours being mainly the utilization of the drippings of oil from the upper film not sufficiently atomized to be consumed in the upper fire, by the aid of a bed of hot refractory material to facilitate the vaporizin g of the same, together with an additional supply of oil, when required. VVe find that the refractory material will retain sufficient heat for effectually vaporizing the oil; whereas our experience in the use of a coal fire in the lower part of the furnace is that it is impracticable with the oil fire above, because it is extinguished by the absorption of its carbon by the oil, so that effectual combustion is prevented, and by chillin g when replenished, which is frequently required, also chills the oil fire above, and often extinguishes it.

Ve are also aware that oil has been injected directly onto a bed of refractory material; but this plan does not involve our process of the upper lateral fire and the lower upward fire, and is not effective, because when oil is injected on a bed of incandescent coal or refractory material a large proportion of lampblack results.

\Ve are aware that a series of small injectors have been arranged side by side along the front of the furnace for distributing the oil through numerous fine jets, and perforated pipes have been arranged across the interior front of the furnace for the issue of the material in very fine jets, which have correspondingly limited range, and similar perforated pipes have been distributed under or IIO in the locality of the ire-grate for distributing similar fine jets of gas or injected steam and oil upward, and we make no claim for such devices. We iind that such fine injectors and perforations clog so quickly with tar and other matters that they are impracticable for burning oil, and for the upper tire the range is so short as to have but little effect, and besides the amount of heat produced from a given quantity of injected oil is much greater when burned en masse than when distributed, and the success of our invention is dependent upon so burning the injected oil; and we secure the success of the lower iire through the supply of the same to the absorbent bed in eX- cess of and in reserve of the issue into the flame, and we limit our claims to the apparatus as adapted for these qualities.

What we claim, and desire to secure by Leiters Patent, is-

l. The combination, with a boiler-furnace, of the injector-nozzle having the laterally-expanded and vertically-contracted issue and provided with a series ot troughs for distributing oil laterally in said injector, pipes for supplying oil thereto, a series of oil-burners and supply-pipes, and an absorbent bed of non-combustible material in the lower portion of the furnace-chamber, said burners forming a grate to hold the absorbent material, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with a boiler-furnace, of the inj ector-nozzle having the laterallyeX panded and vertically-contracted issue, oriiices e, connected by narrower slits f, and provided with a series of troughs for distributing oil laterally in said injector, and pipes for supplying oil thereto, said nozzle being detachably fitted in the fire-doorway, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof We affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

JOI-IN WILSON. ALLAN MASON. Witnesses:

W. J. MORGAN, A. P. THAYER. 

